Photo Printing 101
Taking lots of photos is easy and cheap with a digital camera, since there’s no film to develop and you can view the results immediately on most units using the camera’s built-in preview screen. If you don’t like what you see, you can just delete it and (hopefully) shoot again with different settings. When you get home, you can download all your shots to a PC for safekeeping, and can organize them using either folders (my preferred method) or any of several photo-management applications on the market.
In pre-digital days, everyone processed rolls of exposed film and ended up with either negatives and prints or a box of slides. In many cases these would either end up in larger boxes or in a closet somewhere, while more industrious individuals organized theirs into extensive photo albums based on specific trips and events. Sometimes specific prints were selected for enlargement or duplication, but in my experience at least 75% of all photos ended up stashed in boxes never to be seen again.
Today, things are obviously very different. I have about 8 years worth of JPEG images stored on disk; a few of these have been printed out while others are on my family Web site. Many have never been used for anything else, thus proving my assertion that huge numbers of photos are taken and immediately forgotten.
Several options are available if you need to print digital photos. By far one of the easiest involves burning one or more shots to a CD or memory stick, then taking them to your local photo lab for processing. Some stores offer self-service printing kiosks where you can pop in a memory stick or SD card and print away. Numerous Web-based services are also available; if you choose this option you just send JPEG files directly to the lab and the resulting prints are mailed to your home.
If you’re more adventurous, you can buy a photo-capable inkjet or dye sublimation printer and create your own prints. In general the cost per print is higher if you do it yourself, but it can be a lot of fun and you have total control over the process. Several consumer grade units are available from Canon, HP, Kodak, and other vendors and cost anywhere from $50 to $200 depending on features and quality. Look for high resolution (greater than 300dpi) and devices that advertise reasonably waterproof output. Vegetable based inkjet output is often extremely sensitive to water, and will bleed almost immediately.
In my experience, you’ll pay $.30 or more per print for a 4×6″ photo. If you experience printer errors or media problems, the cost can go up considerably since you’ll end up throwing away the defective prints. The same was true in the old days of darkroom development in chemical baths, so nothing much has changed here. Back then, prints were scrapped due to incorrect exposure times or developer problems. For most people, commercial printing services are far less frustrating and cost effective than printing photos at home but there’s a lot to be said for having the ability to cook off prints whenever you want. Just don’t expect to save money in the process.